


Afraid For You

by Stennerd



Series: Buddie Week 2020 [5]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Angst and Drama, Angst with a Happy Ending, Buck and Eddie have an argument, Buck can be a self-sacrificing idiot but has his heart in the right place, Buck is always in the wrong place at the wrong time, Buddie Week 2020 (TV), Car Accidents, Established Relationship, Hurt Evan "Buck" Buckley, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Worried Eddie Diaz, brief mention of CPR, but it was the right place and right time for the man in the other car
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:55:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26628634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stennerd/pseuds/Stennerd
Summary: Day 5: Buddie + “How do we fix this?” + angst - It takes a car accident for Buck to understand what his argument with Eddie was really about.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: Buddie Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931380
Comments: 10
Kudos: 256





	Afraid For You

This was not how Buck thought his night would go.

It started with him and Eddie having an argument borne off the tailcoats of their last rescue of the night. He had made a split-second decision, a justified and ultimately correct one that resulted in him saving a life, he just didn’t have the time to tell anyone that he made it until he emerged from the building covered in soot and glass and carrying an elderly woman.

Once they were off shift and at home the tension that had been held between him and Eddie finally manifested into an argument, one that was about being too reckless at work. They were in a steady relationship, and Eddie argued that it was time that Buck realised that, that he had a partner, a family that needed him to come home and not risk his life so needlessly.

Somehow it then shifted to being about trust. The fact that despite the fact that Buck trusted Eddie to do what was necessary in order to save someone, Eddie couldn’t do the same. That he didn’t trust that Buck was capable of making the hard choice, to get himself out of the situations that he puts himself in in order to save a life.

In the end, they were both left standing there, stung by the words that were said, out of argument material but still upset and angry over the situation.

“How do we fix this?” was all he asked Eddie when they had run out of things to say, but from the looks of it, neither of them had an answer, at least not in this moment while emotions were still running high.

All he knew was that he needed to get out, to take some time away to think and give each other some space, so he left, telling Eddie that he was going for a drive but promised that he’d be back in a few hours.

Now, kneeling beside a man as he pumped his chest on the road, with blood running into his eyes, Buck wished more than anything that he had Eddie by his side.

Once again he was caught in an unlucky situation; wrong place, wrong time. The road had empty aside from one oncoming car when it happened. The car swerved, and he had barely enough time to react to avoid a head-on collision, but that’s not to say he and his car came away unscathed.

The car managed to clip his back bumper hard, sending him into a spin while it continued to careen into a brick wall. Everything that happened, did so in a blur. He cracked his head on the window before the airbags deployed from the steering wheel sending it crashing into his face and chest.

Buck doesn’t remember getting out of his car when it came to a stop, all he knows is that he managed to walk away from it and went straight to the other car, to find the driver unresponsive.

He doesn’t remember calling 911, but they were on the phone with him after he managed to pull the man from the wreckage of his car when he found that he had no pulse.

All he knows is that his chest felt like it was on fire and his eye stung as his vision turned red while he worked on this man. Miraculously, after only 4 cycles of compressions, the middle-aged man sputtered back to life and started breathing on his own, and all Buck could do was let out a sigh of relief as he rolled him into the recovery position.

He sat there, with his fingers on the still unconscious but now breathing man’s pulse as he updated the 911 operator who sounded suspiciously familiar. His chest ached, and breathing was now painful to the point of being a near-impossible task, so he sat and waited, hoping the ambulance was close because he’s pretty sure he’s about to pass out. 

** ** **

When Eddie’s phone rang, he thought it would be Buck, hoping that it would be Buck because he’d been gone for over two hours and he couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong.

Turns out it was the other Buckley calling.

And it wasn’t good news.

The only words that registered were: Buck, hurt, and accident. That was all he needed to know before he was flying out the door with car keys in hand. Asking for the hospital he was transported to. 

Maddie couldn’t give him much information as he drove, all she knew was that Josh had gotten a 911 call from Buck saying that had been in a car accident and had to resuscitate the other driver, which he did only to end up being transported to the hospital with his own injuries, It was unclear what the injuries were, but from what she gathered, Buck became unresponsive shortly after he announced that the driver had a pulse again.

From the sounds of it, they weren’t good if he had to be transported in his own ambulance. But surely they couldn’t have been that bad if Buck was able to perform CPR unassisted. Still, all that Eddie could imagine was a worst-case scenario and he couldn’t help but feel like it was his fault that Buck was hurt in the first place.

He should have stopped him. Why didn’t he? If they had just listened to each other and talked it out instead of yelling at each other, Buck wouldn’t have felt the need to leave, he wouldn’t have been in this accident alone, and he would have been safe at home. Eddie hopes that it's not as bad as he’s imagining because he would hate for the last memory Buck had of him would be of their fight.

Eddie was pretty sure that he made it to the hospital in record time and its times like these that he’s grateful that Christopher was at a sleepover. He wouldn’t have wanted him to see how uneasy and anxious he is over the thought of Buck being hurt and he’s well aware that he wouldn’t have been able to hide it from him.

When he gets to the main desk he’s barely had the chance to utter “I’m looking for my fiancé Evan Buckley,” when the familiar voice of Athena cuts across the din of the Emergency waiting room. 

“Eddie, over here.”

Confused, he thanks the person at the desk and joins her on the far wall, “Athena? What are you doing here?”

“I was dispatched to the accident. I didn’t know it was Buck until I got there, he’s was already being loaded into the ambulance by the time I was on the scene. I followed them here to get his statement.”

Before he has a chance to ask her if she knew how he was, a nurse joined them saying that Buck was ready to take visitors now that they had finished assessing him. He explained the short list of injuries as they walked.

It’s not until Eddie sees Buck in person that he allows the tightness in his chest to loosen. Of course, Buck was chatting with the doctor who was working on the deep cut on his forehead. He barely looked injured aside from the gash, but Eddie knew from the nurse that the worst of it was hidden by his gown.

When he sees Eddie and Athena his smile brightens a moment before it dims as if he remembers the core reason why he was in this predicament. Athena, ever perceptive, notices this and takes charge, asking Buck everything he remembered from the accident. As Buck recounts his side of the events, Eddie is reminded of the reasons he loved the man and can’t help but feel proud of him for what he did.

It’s not until after Athena and the doctor had left does he finally address his fiancé with fond exasperation, “You’re an idiot, you know that right? Putting yourself at risk. You could have punctured a lung from your rib fractures from resuscitating that man, Buck.”

“I was the only one there! He would have died if I didn’t do anything.” Bucks gestures without thinking and winces from the movement.

Eddie groans softly to himself at Buck’s bull-headedness and moves closer to the bed and rests a hand lightly in his hair, “And if you did puncture a lung before the ambulance got there, you might have died with him.”

“But I didn’t, Eddie! And I saved a life, why don’t you get that?”

He ends up sitting heavily in the chair beside Buck, frustrated that he still wasn’t understanding what he was trying to say, “Our fight from before; I realised after you left that it was never about me not trusting your ability, you’re a brilliant firefighter, it was me being afraid for you.” He runs a hand through his hair as his eyes fixate on the only visibly wound on Buck as he continues.

“You are so willing to save a life at the cost of your own to the point that you don’t even bat an eye at it. I was scared over the thought that one day, you’ll go in for a risky rescue and not tell anyone your plan, and when you don’t come back none of us will know what happened to you.”

Buck deflates and settles back down against the pillow, “Oh.”

“Yeah, _oh_.” Eddie reaches out to take Buck’s hand and gently kisses his knuckles, “Just promise me that you’ll communicate with us from now on, so we can all agree it’s worth the shot even if you think we’re wasting time. I’d rather see you live to have the chance to save more people than to die from a half-cocked plan we could have prevented.”

“Alright, I can do that.” Buck squeezes Eddie’s hand, “I promise.”


End file.
